Yesterday was a really sleepy day for me. I got up, had an awesome 45 minute cardio workout and then went to work. At about 2pm, I seriously could no longer keep my eyes open. I decided to listen to my body and take a much needed nap. I figured I would sleep for maybe 30 minutes or an hour max. No such thing happened. I slept until 5pm! A three hour nap! I must have really been tired. I even went to bed at 9pm last night and slept thru the night until the alarm went of at 5am. Not even getting up once. As a water loving pregnant girl, this never happens.

Two quick nutrient updates that I read about in the September issue of Whole Living magazine. These two excerpts are taken from the article “Pulp Starts”, page 54. The article is about nine superfruits.

Apples

The lunch-box favorite is a nutritional powerhouse, and research shows that having an apple a day may really be a smart dietary move. Typically, the darker the color, the healthier the fruit, Kirkpatrick says, so a Red Delicious is probably better for you than a Golden Delicious. Also try some of the new hybrids available, like the refreshingly sweet-tart Honeycrisp. Eating the peel is important: It contains fiber and antioxidants. (Choose organic- apples topped the Environment Working Group’s most recent Dirty Dozen list because most of the crops are heavily sprayed with pesticides.) Roast apples with shallots for a side dish. Slice into salads (the fruit’s juiciness means you need less dressing). Or for a simple guilt-free dessert, top a baked apples with raisins and cinnamon. Healthy Bottom Line: Apples contain the antioxidant quercetin, which has been shown to protect against heart disease and asthma. Research suggest eating them may increase life expectancy by 10 percent, albeit in fruit flies. They’re also great sources of cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber, which may reduce dangerous belly fat.

Blackberries

These dark-hued (read: full of antioxidants), juicy morsels are bursting with nutrients. Just one cup provides a third of the fiber you need in a day for only 62 calories. Pair them with ricotta on toast, toss in a spinach salad with feta and walnuts, or blend with coconut water and a banana. Health Bottom Line: Blackberries have an even higher ORCA (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) score than blueberries, Kirkpatrick says, meaning they have more disease-fighting capabilities. A potent antiaging food, berries also boosted mental performance in animal studies. Plus a compound in the fruit shows great promise in killing leukemia cells, according to a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Study.

*Tip: They sell large bags of frozen organic blackberries at Costco for like $5-7. We always have them on hand. After reading this article, I decided to put an apple and blackberries into my green smoothie to get an even more nutrient potent drink!

This morning, once the alarm went off, Keith and I were planning on heading into the gym until he whispered Starbucks and scones. I immediately knew I wanted to do my planned strength workout this afternoon and head over to Starbucks. What really made us do this was the fact it is now September and we were thinking the new fall drinks might be out. Not the case. The lady told us they get all their fall drinks on Tuesday! Yay! I ended up getting a decaf coffee and split a pumpkin scone with the husband. I told him that you can’t tempt a pregnant woman with Starbucks and a pumpkin scone at 5am and think I wont be all over it!

This is what my day looks like today, not too bad.

Starbucks

Check Emails

Start Trainer Pay Checks

Blog

Breakfast

Bank

Work- train, clean up the gym, finish up pay checks

Workout

Grocery Shop

Lunch

Hang Pictures

Yoga <—I haven’t done it in a week and need to force myself to do it tonight!

Laundry

Vacuum

Dinner

Relax

Not too bad, maybe a walk for the puppy will be thrown in the mix as well. Hopefully today I can avoid a three hour nap!

Workout of the Week- Abs

I love training my core. I like the feeling of having a nice strong midsection. If you are looking to tone up your core, follow this circuit, repeat it two (or three times for an intense burn) and try and do it three days a week. Everyone wants nice tight abs!

*Remember to consult with your doctor before trying or doing any new exercise programs.*

Mountain Climbers- 50 reps per side

Plank- hold until failure (try to work up to holding it for 1-2 minutes)

Straight Arm Plank- hold until failure (try to work up to holding it for 1-2 minutes)

Russian Twists- 25-50 reps

Holding Crunch Leg Lifts- 25 reps

Side Plank- hold until failure and add five lifts at the end

Holding Medicine Ball Mini Crunches- Lay on your back with your legs straight in the air at a 90 degree angle. Keeping your arms straight out in front of you, try and get the medicine ball to touch your toes or go past if you can- 25-50 reps

One Sided Bicycle Crunches- 15-25 reps per side (hold each one for the count of two)

Questions:

What is your all time favorite ab move? I like the plank

What is your favorite fruit to add into a green smoothie other than a banana? I really liked the added pineapple

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24 Responses to “Workout of the Week and Thursday Agenda!”

How are the green smoothies? I have had the NAKED brand drinks. My fave is the Green Machine and the Blueberry one is also good. Can you taste the spinach? What brand of protein powder do you suggest? I noticed recently that the grocery store has been selling bags of pre-cut fruit from Jamba Juice in the frozen section for smoothies.

The forty spices flavor from Tribe is a good hummus. So is the sun dried tomato one from Sabra.

I was SO happy Jordan and Rachel won the POV! I hope they stick with their inital plan and vote Shelley off! : )

I love green smoothies. I also buy the Naked brand green machine juice at Costco and usually have a small glass as an afternoon snack. It is delicious. I notice if I put like 4 heaping handfuls of spinach into the blender, I can taste it, so I try and stick with about 2 big handfuls. Protein powder is all up to you. I just use what Keith buys at GNC. It is a whey protein, but it all depends on what you like and what you eat. Some people swear by vegetarian protein and some like soy, so it’s all based on your personal tastes.

Hi Kjirsten! First of all, I love your blog and just wanted to say thanks for writing such great posts all the time.

I love planks as well and really like how you can tell a difference pretty quickly once you start doing them often. I find that yoga is my favorite method for toning my abs – you have to really focus on your core throughout class to get all of the benefits but it will give you amazing results if you do!

Wow you have a busy day!! Your abs in the pics you posted right when you found out you were prego looked amazing!!! I am definitely going to do your ab routine :) Mountain climbers and high plank are my favorite~ we do them in my heated sculpt yoga class!! Can you do heated yoga if you are preg?

Trust me, I don’t *need* any more reasons to eat apples and blackberries. But I’ll take all I can get since they’re my favs. :) I like to add frozen blackberries or frozen cherries to my smoothies, but sadly, both turn your mouth kind of purple. Yikes!

My favorite ab move is definitely the plank and bicycle crunches since I love working my obliques.

I love love making smoothies for breakfast, especially during this summer heat, and besides frozen bananas I love adding frozen mango chunks from Trader Joe’s, gives a great flavor to the smoothie. And TJ’s also has my fav hummus flavors – I love their quartet which has all my 4 favorite flavors – original, spicy, tomato, and garlic!

Sorry for the second post, but are these the exercises you did to get fab abs like the before pic?? I know everyone is different but what motivation I would have knowing this is what you did to get those abs!!

The picture in this post under the ab workout is of a person I got from the internet, if that is the before pic you are talking about. All of these exercise I do/did to keep my stomach flat and super toned before I got pregnant. They really work. I can’t do them all right now, but I still do the ones I’m able to do!

Okay, I just wanted to make sure you knew that the amazing ab pic wasn’t of me. Yes, I do all the exercises I posted in the ab circuit! I try and do abs a few times a week! All of the exercises in the circuit will help tone all your ab muscles! There’s a lot of them! :)

I’ve recently heard you’re not supposed to do lots of ab work while pregnant… especially not the lower part of the abdomen. At least that is what some people have told me. But since you are a trainer and you do them I don’t see why not right?

Working your abs while pregnant is completely safe but you need to do modifications such as not doing any exercises laying on your back while in the second and third trimester. Working your core will help ease back pain as well as aid in an easier labor/delivery. The exercises I posted in this weeks workout of the week are for non-pregnant women. I currently stick with lots of planks, straight arms planks and side planks right now. If you are doing crunches and other exercises like that while pregnant, you can actually help in the separation of your ab muscles that will happen later in pregancy. You want to avoid those exercies.

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Disclaimer:

Everything on this website is based from my personal experience and knowledge with how I workout and how I eat. I DO NOT post everything I eat in a day on my blog. I am not a registered Dietician (RD) or doctor. If you have medical needs or want to start a diet and or exercise program please consult with a doctor and RD about the best program for you along with your related questions.

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